Staff development workshops

We can often tailor and run ad hoc workshops for a specific Faculty, School, Department, group or project. If you are interested please contact us and one of the team will be in touch to discuss your requirements.

Designing and creating digital materials

Course description

The increased availability of mobile devices gives teaching staff an opportunity to allow guided and self-paced learning to continue outside of traditional settings. This workshop will help you to get started in creating digital materials, moving from the initial idea through to creation and publishing the final content. The course will give you hands on experience with content creation tools and approaches and is intended for anyone wanting to create their own online or electronic resources.

By the end of the workshop participants will be able to :

Develop a concept from an initial idea

Select appropriate tools

Design materials 'flow'

Storyboard content

Work through the development process

Implement the finished content

Tutor

Martin Nutbeem

Duration

Effective course design

Course description

In this workshop participants will explore and critique examples of approaches to course design, and identify how these can be applied in their own Blackboard courses. Through exploration of approaches that have proven effective in the University or elsewhere in HE institutions they will learn key principles of effective online course design to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of courses for staff and students. This will include strategies for addressing common issues, for example, avoiding too much content on a single page. Participants will be offered a follow up individual consultation with the TEL team to complete their course re-design.

Duration

Tutors

Getting the most out of the Blackboard Grade Centre: advanced administration skills for electronic management of assessment (EMA)

Course description

Increasing numbers of staff are supporting electronic management of assessment (EMA) in Blackboard. This workshop is aimed at colleagues who wish to deepen their knowledge and expertise of administering the grade centre effectively, in particular when dealing with large cohorts of students. During the workshop participants will be able to explore examples and try out a range of advanced grade centre tools. They will also be given access to a set of resources to take away.By the end of the workshop participants will:· be able to apply advanced features of the grade centre to their Courses eg use grading periods to organise assignments by teaching block.· be able to make the grade centre easier to work with eg for markers and moderators· have strategies to administer the grade centre effectively including filtered views and managing large cohorts of students· be able to import and export data from the grade centre from/to other systems.· be able to ensure controlled student access to relevant grade centre data

Pre-requisites

Participants should already have a basic knowledge of setting up and managing assignments in Blackboard.

Tutor

Naomi Beckett

Duration

3 hours

Introduction to Blackboard for academic and research staff

Course description

Blackboard is the University of Bristol’s centrally supported Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Blackboard provides a range of tools for communication, collaboration, and assessment as well as offering an online area to share resources like course notes and reading lists. This workshop will provide an introduction to Blackboard’s tools and features. As part of the workshop participants will build their own Blackboard course and if possible should bring materials such as reading lists, lecture notes or ideas for online activities to the workshop.

The aim of this workshop is to provide a concise overview of the tools and features of Blackboard, enable participants to create their own courses and share ideas on how Blackboard can be used to support learning and teaching based on examples from the University of Bristol.

By the end of the workshop participants will be able to:

Identify key features of the Blackboard VLE

Design and create a Blackboard course that includes communication, collaboration and assessment tools

Discuss some of the key issues associated with online learning

Pre-requisites

This course is intended for all academic and research staff who are new to Blackboard or wish to refresh their knowledge. Participants are encouraged to bring materials they wish to publish online (Word documents, web pages, Powerpoints, etc.) to work with during the session.

Tutors

Duration

Introduction to Blackboard for administrative and support staff

Course description

Blackboard is the University of Bristol's centrally supported Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Blackboard provides a range

of tools for communication, collaboration, and assessment as well as offering an online area to share resources like course notes and reading lists. This workshop will provide an introduction to the key features of Blackboard most used by administrative and support staff, including:

Course setup and life cycle

Enrolment

Adding content such as files, folders and web links

Using communication tools e.g. email and announcements

Online submission

Common student and staff queries

Pre-requisites

This course is intended for administrative or support staff who are new to Blackboard or wish to refresh their knowledge.

Duration

Introduction to Questionmark Perception

Course description

Interactive assessment by computer offers a range of benefits to teachers and students; e.g. instant marking, immediate feedback, a wider range of assessment types, flexibility of time and place.

Aims

This workshop provides an introduction to Questionmark Perception, a dedicated and powerful online assessment system that is being used by several Departments/ Schools to deliver diagnostic, formative and summative assessments to students on and outside the University campus. The workshop includes:

A pre-session online activity to help participants familiarising themselves with principles for writing assessment questions for online delivery (30 minutes)

A hands on session to present an overview of the procedural aspects of organising and running successful e-assessments followed by a hands-on training needed to get started with authoring questions and developing tests the give participants the opportunity to have a hands on presents an overview

Objectives

By the end of the workshop participants will have:

Become familiar with principle for writing effective assessment questions for online delivery

Been introduced to the e-assessment lifecycle and what is involved in developing, organising and delivering successful online assessments

Become familiar with the Questionmark Perception software and what it can do, including the range of question types it can be used for

Understood the principles of creating questions and tests with the Questionmark Authoring Manager interface

Gained firsthand experience of using the interfaces to develop questions, construct and deliver a simple online assessment

Become aware of the resources and support for online assessment available at the University.

Pre-requisites

Participants should know how to use a Web browser. Prior to the face to face session participants will need to have taken the online tutorial 'writing effective assessment questions for online delivery' Participants may wish to bring an example of an assessment that is currently delivered on paper.

Tutors

Roberta Perli

Hanrahan Highland

Suzi Wells

Duration

Synchronous online teaching with Blackboard Collaborate

Blackboard Collaborate is an interactive web conferencing tool available for staff and students. This hands on workshop will help you set up online spaces, timed sessions and use interactive tools with remote users and external guests. Share screens, create breakout rooms for groups and setup spaces for collaborate work. From feedback meetings to webinars, Collaborate can help you take teaching beyond the classroom.

Duration

2.5 hours

Tutor

Martin Nutbeem

Video in teaching and learning

Course description

This workshop aims to introduce staff to the educational application of video, for example providing content prior to a lecture, clarification post lecture or feedback. It will take participants through the planning, design, production and evaluation of media rich resources. The workshop will include a hands on session where participants can use the Mediasite Desktop recorder to create and publish content.

Duration

3 hours

Tutor

TEL essentials

Course description

This course is for teaching staff and aims to provide you with an overview of technology enhanced learning (TEL) and assessment. It provides some principles and strategies underpinning successful use of TEL, focussing particularly on a blended context where students have a mixture of online and face-to-face learning experiences. During the course activities you will also be able to try out a range of technologies

Objectives

By the end of the course you should be able to:

Demonstrate awareness of the importance and role of TEL in contemporary Higher Education, and describe examples of its use , including potential benefits and considerations

Explain principles underpinning the design of online and blended courses and key considerations when planning them

Analyse how different technologies can support different types of learning, teaching and assessment activities, and compare the use of institutionally supported technologies and those on the open web, in order to make informed decisions

Describe strategies for facilitating, managing and evaluating online and blended learning activities, demonstrating awareness of the importance of the tutor role online